Synthesis and characterization of photocrosslinkable, degradable poly(vinyl alcohol)-based tissue engineering scaffolds.

Hydrogels have many advantages that make them prime candidates for tissue engineering applications: high water content, tissue-like elasticity, and relative biocompatibility. We aim to tissue engineer heart valves using a hydrogel scaffold based on poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), and the design parameters for a suitable tissue engineering scaffold are quite stringent. In this research, we develop degradable and photocrosslinkable poly(lactic acid)-g-PVA multifunctional macromers that can be reacted in solution to form degradable networks. The mass loss profiles and bulk properties of the resulting scaffolds are easily tailored by modifying the structure of the starting macromers. Specifically, altering the number of lactide repeat units per crosslinking side chain, percent substitution, molecular weight of PVA backbone, and macromer solution concentration, the rate of mass loss from these degradable networks is controlled. In addition, by increasing the network's hydrophobicity, valve interstitial cell adhesion is improved.